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At 11:08 on July 31st 1973, a Delta Airlines
DC-9 crashed into the seawall at Logan Airport while attempting to land,
just short of the runway. 89 people tragically lost their lives.
The accident remains a memory for many Bostonians because
of the hope at that time someone would survive the crash. There were
initially two survivors. One person lived for about two hours. A second
person, with terrible burns and traumatic injuries, clung to life for four
months, and died on December 1, 1973. Many Bostonians had hoped and prayed
for this person to survive. The passing of the final survivor of
Flight 723 was a very somber event. At the time, the accident added to local
concerns about the growth in air traffic.
A huge fog bank enveloped Logan Airport on the day of the
crash. Flight 723 was on an instrument landing approach. The
crew was briefly distracted by an onboard instrument and an air traffic
control instruction, and the plane flew right into the seawall in front of
the runway. A plane on final approach behind Flight 723,
unaware that Flight 723 had even crashed, aborted the landing due to
weather, and later reported zero visibility at 216 feet. The air
traffic control tower was actually unaware of the accident for several
minutes due to the poor visibility.
The crash was extremely sad. The event may never have
happened if not for an extra second or two, or with very few additional feet
in altitude. Some of the good results of the Flight 723 crash were
recommendations on runway approach lighting systems, changes to a flight
instrument, and a pilot advisory that electronic landing conditions may not
match actual conditions near a touchdown point.
At the time, the accident added to local concerns about
the growth in air traffic. Films such as Airport, Alive, and Skyjack,
convey some of the public uneasiness about air travel in the early 1970's.
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